Plein Air Oil Sketch: Breakfast (Oil, 10 x 16)

This morning I went to Beatrice and Alison's home on Tuckhoe Road. Beatrice was not home. Only her son and Alison were there. As usual, they were very nice and let me paint on their farm. I made quite a few paintings on their farm before, including the Haystacks and their old farm house. Over the past few months, their cattle population had expanded. Beatrice's pet horse Lily had two babies.

At first, I tried to paint them in the shade of an old oak, but suddenly they all moved to the stack eating their breakfast. I had to use a rag to erase my draft with a light brown color and move my easel to start all over again. The animals' oily skin and the golden haystacks glowed in the morning sun. The view was really gorgeous. I tried to paint them together. Of course, I knew these models were totally free-will and they would move anytime they wanted, so when I decided their postures in the picture, I chose a medium-value color and quickly blocked in, making their images as accurate as possible. At the same time, I "burned" into my memory the important details of their poses. When they suddenly moved, I switched to paint the haystacks or background till they came back. They would never go back to the same pose again, but I had to make modification in my 3-D thinking and add more details to their images. Sometimes, they happened to be in a position which was close to the opposite flip-over position. Therefore, I had to reverse the sides which facing or back to the light source. It was tough to paint animals. You have to step out of your comfort zone. If you want to improve your sketching skills, that is a good approach to take because you will always  pick the most critical part to paint. No matter what, your art work will always be an honest, authentic and natural expression of your emotions.